Purpose

A. Our Mission

(12) We are a Lutheran community committed to:

a) know Christ;

b) pray for the advance of His kingdom;

c) share the Gospel and ourselves with those who do not know Him; and,

d) encourage Christians everywhere in this global task.

B. Our Vision

We are a Lutheran community…

(13) We are a Lutheran community in mission.

a) We undertake our mission as Lutherans. We proceed from a variety of Lutheran synodical backgrounds, in which we participate gladly.

b) We undertake our mission as a community: lay and ordained, male and female, multi-generational and multi-ethnic. Our members are variously and wonder-fully gifted for the task we share together. We appreciate their multi-textured gifts, and work at encouraging one another in their exercise, for the cause of Christ.

(14) Moreover, we understand our fellowship to be part of a much larger body – the Church of Jesus Christ around the world. Wherever possible, we will advocate interrelationship, interdependence, and creative partnership in the cause of the Gospel around the world.

…committed to know Christ

(15) We are committed to the Person and the Cause of Jesus. We believe that committed lives are indispen-sable for authentic and compelling witness.

(16) We intend to call others to commitment as well. We intend to plead with all of our creative energy, “Be reconciled to Christ,” as ambassadors of God himself.

(17) We understand that this commitment exacts a cost – and we purpose to bear it, by the grace of God. We will ready ourselves for suffering. We will turn away from costly comforts, a larger income, material possessions, and places of personal privilege or honor. We will choose instead to embrace the way of poverty, loss, suffering, and humiliation – whatever it takes to bring the Gospel of Jesus to as many people as possible.

…committed to pray for the advance of his kingdom

(18) We are committed to pray, as Jesus commands his followers in Matthew 9:38 – “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

(19) We are not, primarily, a missionary sending organization. We are fundamentally a praying “league”, a community of men and women who are committed to prayer as a key methodology for advancing the Gospel of Christ. Prayer is the “working method” of our mission.

(20) Since God gives our resources, we will not solicit human beings. We envision mutual accountability as we hold one another to this common commitment.

(21) Since God gives our resources, we will continue to treat them “as from the hand of God” – honoring financial designations explicitly. We will treat our personnel “as from the hand of God” as well – respecting insofar as possible each individual calling within our overall work and fellowship.

…committed to share the gospel and ourselves with those who do not know him

(22) We declare our passion for the evangelization of the world. We will share the gospel. And our sharing will involve more than our words. We propose sharing “ourselves” – that is, our material goods, our money, our service, our very lives.

(23) We will focus our sharing in three areas: disciple-making along the frontiers that surround us; leadership development in service to the emerging church; and, mission mobilization.

a) Disciple-making along the frontiers. We will remain prayerfully alert to the frontiers that surround us today, and the new frontiers that may beckon us tomorrow. We will apply our prayers and resources, in particular, along the frontier of the unreached – those peoples among whom an indigenous, missionizing, church-planting movement has yet to be established. We will apply ourselves further, as much as possible, along the frontier of limited access – unreached peoples among whom few missionaries are at work, or traditional missionaries cannot go.

b) Leadership development. We believe that God has equipped the church with everything needful for its basic ministries of proclamation, service and administration. We believe that God equips the church, as well, with the leadership necessary for its life and ministry. We will not, therefore, lead churches where local leaders are available. Rather, we will encourage the church to take up its calling. We will pray and work to encourage and develop its leadership in every way.

c) Mission mobilization. We will work toward an indigenous, missionizing, church-planting movement, wherever God has led us. We will work under the structures of the church as it exists in hopeful partnership, that the church may be planted where it has not yet advanced.

…committed to encourage Christians everywhere in this global task

(24) We applaud evidences of God’s mission from and to the entire world. We believe that the mission of God belongs to the whole people of God. We will encourage Christians everywhere in its pursuit.

(25) As for ourselves and our work, we intend to be mobile. We pledge ourselves to expendability. We will not ensconce our persons or our organization perma-nently in any of our areas of work. We understand ourselves as scaffolding; but when a building is completed, the scaffolding must be removed. In all of our work, we will plan for our own dismantling, in order to help build up the church in another area.